I always like to see any prominent themes in a series of unconnected comic books. It’s like Ozymandias’ wall of screens (which appear quite a lot in this week’s Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #4). But what isn’t in that comic (this week) is serious dismemberment.

But it seems to be everywhere else.

Wolverine MAX #2 leads the charge, naturally, but not at Wolverine’s claws this time. A nice injury-to-eye motif to start us off.

X-Men: Legacy #2 gives us eyes without a body. But where can they be coming from?

Could Lot 13 #2 give us the answer? Of course it’s not just eyes. Brains make a strong appearance here with Bedlam #2.

A sentiment possibly shared by Professor X in Uncanny Avengers #2

Hey, what’s with all these issue twos anyway? Is it an unwritten law that all issue twos have to feature dismemberment?

American Vampire breaks the cycle, albeit only with a leg bone. That’s still dismembered… but what if you want something fresher?

Crossed Badlands #18 breaks that cycle, but then I suppose every issue of Crossed features dismemberment. So what made me pick this particular panel?

Well this cover of Chew felt like a natural segue. But what it leads up to, man, I wasn’t expecting this. Not at all. Like I said, John Layman is an arse. And Rob Guillory is his co-collaborator.

And that’s not even as bad as what happens next… and in issue 31, apparently.